Kodachrome Loops at Cinémathèque Québécoise

[Michel Hardy-Vallée]

The Cinémathèque Québécoise in Montréal is presenting a paean to Super-8 Kodachrome 40 from March 8 to April 29.

28 artists were asked to make 30s clips with one camera, no editing, and no take two. The movies are presented in loops in small viewing machines, similar to Edison's Kinetoscope.

I have not yet had the chance to see this exhibit, but I will try to do so this week. Entrance is free, Tuesday to Friday, from 11:00 to 20:00.

More information here:

http://www.cinematheque.qc.ca/affiche/expositions_en_cours.html

 

[Krockmitaine]

Humm, intéressant. Je vais être à Montréal la fin de semaine de Pâques


Marc

 

[Michel Hardy-Vallée]

So I went to see the exhibit tonight, and the verdict is: from good to seriously bad.

The setup is fun: it's a big empty dark room with a turret in the middle to which 28 articulated arms are attached. At the end is a small box, smaller than a fist, which contains the loop of film, a light source, and a lens. You grab the box to put it to your eyes, and the articulated arm allows you to adjust the height properly. You are peeping into this tiny box, which gives both the impression of watching and filming at the same time.

The ironic thing about the setup is that it is meant for as much as 28 people to watch a film at once, but when I was there, alone, the two other people who were passing by seemed intimidated and dared not enter.

The films themselves are sometimes good (there are some animations sequences that are just a delight), sometimes boring (static images: fer chrissake, it's CINEMA! MOVE IT!), sometimes clever (one is a sequence of steps, each of them filmed over a different surface), sometimes stupid (yep, a static shot of an anus). They encapsulate the fun and the delight of home movies on film: blowing the candles on a cake, making smiles and waving at the camera. They also relate alot to the old NFB animation/experimental film aesthetics that oscillate between the brilliant and the annoyingly tedious.

All in all, for a free exhibit, it's fun and enlightening. The projection boxes have really crappy plastic viewing lenses, so sometimes your eyes hurt because of the distorsions, but some boxes are better than other. There are switches to adjust the focus, but they work more or less.

Two other really cool and free exhibitions in the same building to see are a collection of rejected film posters, and a history of TV with lots of old gear (mechanical TVs, anyone?).

 

[Kino]

Speaking of mechanical TVs...

 

[Michel Hardy-Vallée]

Sort of like that: they have original Baird equipment with the scanning disc containing a spiralling set of holes. It's a nicely primitve way of scanning an image.

"Honey, can you crank up the TV again, I think the newscaster is drawling a bit!"

 

[Kino]

Sort of like that: they have original Baird equipment with the scanning disc containing a spiralling set of holes. It's a nicely primitve way of scanning an image.

"Honey, can you crank up the TV again, I think the newscaster is drawling a bit!"

Should have said, "Apropos of Mechanical TVs" , Sorry!

The photo is of one of the first film chains that broadcast from the Jenkins Labs in (I think) Washington DC or thereabouts.

Its not really a mechanical tv, but the source of transmission for the signal received by a scanning disc, mechanical TV.

But then again, you probably could tell that.

I have to learn the English language someday...